How Congress set the stage for a fiscal meltdown

[EnigmaMaitreya]

Something of interest here. One may want to pay very close attention to the last paragraph.

How Congress set the stage for a fiscal meltdown

Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., a senior member of the banking committee, is the largest recipient of political contributions from Fannie and Freddie employees and PACs, having received $165,400 since 1989, according to the center.

Dodd said he backed Fannie and Freddie because they encouraged homeownership. "I've never ever in my life been affected by a campaign contribution," he said in an interview. He noted that when he became banking committee chairman, he helped pass a bill restricting mortgage agencies' investment practices in 2007. By then, it was too late to stop the financial disaster.

In the House, Republicans and Democrats agreed on a different bill that passed easily. But the Bush administration opposed it, calling it weak. The effort failed.

The next year, Freddie Mac paid the largest election fine ever, $3.8 million, after regulators found it used corporate funds illegally to pay for fundraisers. From 2000 to 2003, Freddie Mac held 85 events that raised $1.7 million, mostly for Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee, regulators found.

Rep. Barney Frank, then the ranking Democrat on financial services and now the chairman, says he and his colleagues were not soft on Fannie and Freddie. "Yes, they lobbied strongly, but I was one of the most successful ones in challenging them."

Frank had no apologies. Rep. Artur Davis, D-Ala., by contrast, offered a rare Washington mea culpa: "Like a lot of my Democratic colleagues, I was too slow to appreciate the recklessness of Fannie and Freddie," he said in a statement. "Frankly, I wish my Democratic colleagues would admit, when it comes to Fannie and Freddie, we were wrong."

 

[Dutchhans]

The melt down is a combination of factors, one of them was the response to the dot com crisis. To avoid a depression federal banks across the world printed tons of money, it avoided the depression but the excess money flowed primarily into the housing market.

Another factor is the humongous deficit, and the evaporated dollar, living beyond our means, and other factors.

It was bound to catch up sooner or later, but if you want to look about it politically, how about McCain's involvement in the Keating disaster?

 

[EnigmaMaitreya]

The melt down is a combination of factors, one of them was the response to the dot com crisis. To avoid a depression federal banks across the world printed tons of money, it avoided the depression but the excess money flowed primarily into the housing market.

Another factor is the humongous deficit, and the evaporated dollar, living beyond our means, and other factors.

It was bound to catch up sooner or later, but if you want to look about it politically, how about McCain's involvement in the Keating disaster?

The Keating disaster that he voluntarily subjected himself to peer review and was found blameless as in with out guilt? Shall I provide the links to the Congressional records? Or you can as easily Google the findings.

Now back to the better part.

The U.S. dollar is NOT based on Gold any longer.

Its value is based on OIL. So when Oil goes from $40US a Barrel to $145US a barrel, then yes your right when you say the devalued U.S. Dollar ....

There Commodities market is the impetus for this current problem, they are the ones that say "Oh, My there is a Tropical Depression forming in the Atlantic so we need to raise OIL by another $10 a barrel" (need a link to that?).

The War declared by Pelosi, Murta and Reid on the Republicans was both the Distraction for this problem to manifest and the path for it to manifest.

The path by defeating any thing and every thing the Republicans initiated before it was even published as in site unseen it is dead (need a link to Murta making that Claim?)

The time frame for the problem to begin is, "Oh my what a strange coincedence that Pelosi declares war on the Republicans and vowing to TEACH THEM A LESSON", when Pelosi takes office.

Both sides are dirty in this, Bush tried to stop it (hello everyone saying it is 100% Bush's fault). In this context it is the Democrats that are guilty of blaming the Republicans for the problems they caused.

Let us pick on Obama as you saw fit to pick on McCain.

Go look up A.C.O.R.N, look for Obamas involvement, one aspect is the pressuring (by listing them as racist if they do not comply) banks into lending money to UNQUALIFIED people.

Sound familure to the Fanny/Freddy Democrat inspired problem?

 

[Pennywise]

Something of interest here. One may want to pay very close attention to the last paragraph.

How Congress set the stage for a fiscal meltdown

Excellent post.

I would add to it, but I am tired after a long day at work. Suffice to say, it was many of the reasons we are in the present perdicument.

Goodness. What people will tolerate, as if in the submissive role in the bondage affair at a suburban Passion Party.

*Gets out ta wip to beat da man's wife cause it turns both him and her on*

 

[T_Amon_from_work]

While this certainly helped, keep in mind that the "F" twins were originally loaning cash on banking rules which prevented many low income and minorities to have mortgages.

Congress legislated these organizations to widen the scope of their lending to include those that by any other test were bad risks - time after time. Keep that in mind as well.

 

[Dutchhans]

The Keating disaster that he voluntarily subjected himself to peer review and was found blameless as in with out guilt? Shall I provide the links to the Congressional records? Or you can as easily Google the findings.

Now back to the better part.

The U.S. dollar is NOT based on Gold any longer.

Its value is based on OIL. So when Oil goes from $40US a Barrel to $145US a barrel, then yes your right when you say the devalued U.S. Dollar ....

There Commodities market is the impetus for this current problem, they are the ones that say "Oh, My there is a Tropical Depression forming in the Atlantic so we need to raise OIL by another $10 a barrel" (need a link to that?).

The War declared by Pelosi, Murta and Reid on the Republicans was both the Distraction for this problem to manifest and the path for it to manifest.

The path by defeating any thing and every thing the Republicans initiated before it was even published as in site unseen it is dead (need a link to Murta making that Claim?)

The time frame for the problem to begin is, "Oh my what a strange coincedence that Pelosi declares war on the Republicans and vowing to TEACH THEM A LESSON", when Pelosi takes office.

Both sides are dirty in this, Bush tried to stop it (hello everyone saying it is 100% Bush's fault). In this context it is the Democrats that are guilty of blaming the Republicans for the problems they caused.

Let us pick on Obama as you saw fit to pick on McCain.

Go look up A.C.O.R.N, look for Obamas involvement, one aspect is the pressuring (by listing them as racist if they do not comply) banks into lending money to UNQUALIFIED people.

Sound familure to the Fanny/Freddy Democrat inspired problem?

1)

Senators John Glenn and John McCain were cleared of having acted improperly but were criticized for having exercised "poor judgment".

Link

2) The value of the US Dollar has little to do with oil prices, but much more with the huge deficit. It could be argued that if Oil wasn't traded in dollars, the US dollar might be even further down.

3) If the fiscal sound policies from Clinton/Rep Congress had been continued under Bush, chances are there wouldn't have been tons of people who cannot afford their mortgage.

4) May I remind you that there has always been a controversial relationship between congress and the executive branch when one party holds congress and the other the presidency. "Contract for America" ring a bell?

5) Yes the ACORN situation is a disgrace.

 

[EnigmaMaitreya]

The Glenn/McCain thing, well that seems to be the public version of what I said.

If you disagree then *Shrug* tis ok as I think we can both agree that both the public and the congressional version say he was without Guilt.

The poor exercise of judgment .... well again I think that we can both agree that this is and always will be purely subjective and has every possibility of being politically motivated.

If you dig in to the issue deeper, the entire issue was brought up by the Democrat that was defeated by McCain in Arizona.

 

[Dutchhans]

The Glenn/McCain thing, well that seems to be the public version of what I said.

If you disagree then *Shrug* tis ok as I think we can both agree that both the public and the congressional version say he was without Guilt.

The poor exercise of judgment .... well again I think that we can both agree that this is and always will be purely subjective and has every possibility of being politically motivated.

If you dig in to the issue deeper, the entire issue was brought up by the Democrat that was defeated by McCain in Arizona.

Those things are always politically motivated, remember the amount of money spent to get a conviction in 'Whitewater', or during Nixon when democratic congressmen were scrutinized by the IRS?

I am sure there are enough examples that dems do the same.

However I only brought up the Keating 5, because it is party politics to blame democratic congress for the financial crises, so I threw some party politics back at you.

 

[Atlantian]

If you dig in to the issue deeper, the entire issue was brought up by the Democrat that was defeated by McCain in Arizona.

The fact is he was still investigated. Guilty or not he had some involvement in it. Neither party is clean. And I don't recall anyone complaining when the Dems are in office and you're making money and the economy is doing well. The only Repub that had a good economy was Ronald Reagan.

 

[Landicine]

Something of interest here. One may want to pay very close attention to the last paragraph.

How Congress set the stage for a fiscal meltdown

While I'll be the first to admit that there are a whole lot of idiots and mistakes in this whole mess:

http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/who_caused_the_economic_crisis.html

However, I don't think your original article proves much. Chris Dodd became chairman of that committee in 2007. Before that it was held by Richard Shelby (R-Arizona) because of the Republican majority in Congress.

The Republican party wants to avoid all blame for this crisis, but they really really can't, especially considering:

-Most of these subprime morgages were taken out between 2004 and 2005 when Republicans controlled the presidency and Congress.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-12-18-2483477143_x.htm

-Some of the blame certainly falls on the Department of Housing and Urban Development with its head appointed by the president:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/12/AR2008041202374.html

-In 2003, during the height of the predatory lending crisis, the OCC invoked a clause from the 1863 National Bank Act to issue formal opinions preempting all state predatory lending laws, thereby rendering them inoperative. This prevented prosecution and prevention of much of the predatory lending.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/13/AR2008021302783.html

 

[EnigmaMaitreya]

Those things are always politically motivated, remember the amount of money spent to get a conviction in 'Whitewater', or during Nixon when democratic congressmen were scrutinized by the IRS?

I am sure there are enough examples that dems do the same.

However I only brought up the Keating 5, because it is party politics to blame democratic congress for the financial crises, so I threw some party politics back at you.

*Shrug* Or BillyGate or MonicaGate Great use of the tax dollars there . Heck we can even throw in V.P. Spiro Agnew.

An aspect change that has occurred, is that despite the Party Politics when dominate, is that each party (see an addendum to this later) more or less respected the other party and had a form of Ethics.

This form of Ethics precluded the dominate party from "Killing any legislation introduced by the opposing party, sight unseen".

This is an important shift from a war of rhetorical words to a war of power. Meaning that the war is no longer talking tough but sitting down and getting the nations business done.

Now due to Nancey Pelosi Declaring War on the Republicans to Teach them a lesson, Murta, Pelosies Cronie (that she campaigned against having) Makes a clear statement to the Republicans that they can forget ever submitting legislation as it will be Dead on Arrival, sight unseen, things have escalated to a war of power. The Democrats wielding the power to Kill any and all Republican legislation, sight unseen. The Republicans retaliate by blocking Democratic legislation.

What makes the above dangerous is that it is easy to miss that the nations business is NOT being taken care of.

That means we the people, we pay the price, and that is regardless of being Democrat, Republican or Independent.

I said the Democrats are on the short end of this stick because they are blaming the Republicans for the choices the Democrats made. This is clearly documented, well in .... screw it people will believe what ever Incarnation of the National Inquirer that supports their hatred/political fervor. To me it just shows the Democrats continue to move to increasing their Modus operandi to be ever more deceitful and belligerent.

The addendum, our political system has been shifting more and more to the equivalent of the Message Boards, were flam wars are the norm, Incarnations of the National Inquirer are the norm, people are only informed at a surface level by 30 second sound bytes. Young people sell their vots for an IPod/IPhone. Young people are dominated to support the candidate of the alpha persons choice.

The cruelest joke of all is one that is not really seen or even easy to see.

We get the right to vote, we lose it when we die. The problem is we are not dieing at the same rate we use to. The majority of voters are over 40. The majority of money is held by people over 40.

The pollsters poll the young voters and those polls get published. They reflect the views of the minority of voters.

When the results of the only poll that counts is in, they will be frustrated and angry and shout "He stole the votes", never really understand what went wrong.

I told my kids, both of them this story,

We are born Independents, no rules and the freedom to do what ever we wanted to do.

We encounter our Republican Parents (figuratively) and we are introduced to Authority and Rules.

This sets us on a path that favors Rebellion against the establishment. The Democrats always appeal to this phase.

We get older, get married, have kids, have a house and think about a good life ..... This favors the Republicans as the perceptions are one of stasis, that is after all the only way we can really perceive the Good Life.

All of this is turning into flaming each other and I am not all that surprised as the very young really do not have an alternate context, meaning I do not blame them nor do I hold it against them.

The older generation (aka Baby Boomers) is the ones responsible for this mess and they have no real incentive to do anything about it.

The younger generations have no means to do anything about it, except to make it worse by escalating the conflict to one of power. They will lose.

This is sad, it was never intended to be this way.